And easy indeed would be the triumph of the opponents of the Gospel, had they this lever with which to upset its truth.

Natural religion, then, cannot be objected to, on the ground that it indisposes us to receive the supposed point of saving faith; for if Christianity demands the faith (which it does not), Christianity is false, and the demand may be neglected; and if it does not, its feelings and requirements cease to be at variance with the dictates of natural piety.

Revelation, then, is not a contradiction to the great principles of natural religion; this would destroy its evidence. Neither is it a mere record of them; this would render it useless. The true light in which to regard it is, that it is an assumption of some, and an anticipation or confirmation of others.

It does not prove, it

I say, it is an assumption of some. takes for granted, the grand fundamental principles of Theism, that there is a God, and that he is ONE. Little reflection is needed to convince any one that of these the scriptures do not, and could not, offer any evidence. In order to perceive this, conceive a mind to be destitute of these ideas, and immersed in Atheism; and suppose a revelation to be presented to it. The communication must be guaranteed by miracle; but what is miracle to one who has no previous conception of a God? It is but a strange and curious fact, no more suggesting to his thought any religious ideas, than if water were to freeze on his fire, or a tree of his garden to blossom in the frost. It would imply, indeed, some power in nature with which he was not familiar; but that that power was an intelligent will, and not rather a mechanical force, could not possibly be inferred by him. It would teach him that there was something hidden, but would only drive him to his experiments again to discover in what region of science it lurked. A miracle, indeed, simply as miracle, is a memento, not a proof, of God; for the existence of mind is to be evidenced,

not by displays of power, but by symptoms of design. And that the Unity of the Deity cannot be established by miracle is no less certain. For supernatural facts might exist where there is a multitude of supernatural powers, with at least as great probability as where there is but one. Of these two truths, then, revelation presupposes us to be possessed. It relies upon their recognition by our minds; it appeals to their power over our thoughts. And thus the very existence of revelation is a solemn sanction to the sublime and simple elements of natural religion; it proclaims us competent to their discovery; it invites us to ascertain and trust their truth.

And while I admit, and indeed earnestly maintain, that to Christianity we are indebted for the knowledge at an early period, and the diffusion, by the power of its authority through myriads of minds, otherwise unreclaimed, of all the other great principles of religion;-though the blessed faith in a universal providence would not, I believe, have descended from the inaccessible heights of a few philosophical minds, had not Christ told us of Him that paints the lilies of the field, and watches the sparrow as it falls;-though the inspiring anticipation of immortality would not have penetrated the heart of society, and illumined the recesses of misery, and nerved the arm of virtue, had not Christ achieved the triumph of the tomb; still, acknowledging the Gospel to be the record, the register of sacred truths, I cannot forget that creation is the scene of their exhibition, the residence of the reality. God's name is in the Bible; his presence is in the world. Inspiration speaks of his power; creation exemplifies it. Sacred men declare his wisdom; a more sacred universe displays it. In the delicate organisms of the animal world, whose variety outnumbers our computation; in the earth, which is prepared for their habitation,-its parts no less various than they; in the relations which unite their instincts with its changes of light and darkness and heat and cold; in

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RELATION OF NATURAL RELIGION TO CHRISTIANITY.

that most wonderful model of sentient being, perceiving, reflecting, feeling, and prospective man; in the process by which he passes from the animal into the reasoning creature, from the selfish to the affectionate, from the mechanical to the responsible, from the earthly almost to the divine; in the knowledge which enraptures his intellect, and the ties which capture his affections, and the hopes which cheer his griefs; does that goodness of God act of which Prophets and Apostles speak. And in the history of nations, in their birth from barbaric elements, but tendencies to progressive civilization; in the successive encroachments of arts on arms, and reason on force, and the welfare of the many on the interests of the few; in the mighty agencies by which tyranny is made to quail, and superstition beaten back in its triumph, and ignorance driven from its throne; in the raising up of gifted individual minds, and the adaptation of their genius and their characters to the wants of their generation; in the creation of a Luther to shake the sleep of corruption by the thunder of his voice; of a Washington, endowed with the imperturbable patience and disinterested wisdom needful to baffle the will and disappoint the arts of practised oppressors, and generate, by the force of pertinacity, the liberty of a new world; of a Scott or a Wordsworth, commissioned to refresh a people's heart with the sympathies of the past and the humanities of the present, and soothe the impatience for things yet to be, by drawing forth the beauty of what has been and what is, and thus breathe the spirit of reverence over the spirit of improvement, we behold the real and living operation of that Providence of which Christ was the proclaimer and the impersonation. And in the quenchless capacities of human nature, in the aspiring of its understanding, in the peace of virtue, in the terrors of sin that cannot stand the calm gaze of God, we see the predictions which life gives of immortality, the signatures which our Creator has impressed on our constitution, of his glorious intentions, and our eternal progress.

LECTURE VI.

INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY ON MORALITY AND

CIVILIZATION.

JOHN I. 17.

GRACE AND TRUTH CAME BY JESUS CHRIST.

DURING eighteen centuries of very various history, the experiment of Christianity must be regarded as having been fairly tried. Sixty successive generations and a multitude of contemporaneous tribes have been educated under its influence, constituting no trivial proportion of the present - population, and the past duration of the world. No one, indeed, can look at the vast portions of mankind yet unreclaimed by its power, or reflect what a mere point two decades of ages may be in the whole range of providential design, without being prepared for new and startling developments of this religion, as it falls upon modifications of character which it has never tried, and conditions of society yet uncreated. Still, however large a future history may be in reserve for our religion, it is not to be doubted that already its prevailing tendencies, its most potent energies must have betrayed themselves; its mission can no longer be a secret, nor all that it has yet accomplished be regarded as its mere preliminaries. Whatever it has effected, it must have been designed to

effect in the providence of God, the contemplated can be no other than the actual result. And from the new elements which Christianity has introduced into the history of the world, from its past operation on the intellect and affections of individual men, and the social spirit and institutions of communities, we may learn what is the errand on which it is sent, and the influences which it is its essential function to exert.

To determine, however, what our religion really has effected in the world is a task of no ordinary difficulty. Every one can point, no doubt, to the external and material changes which it has introduced into human life,—the alterations in the forms and habits of society. And were an ancient Greek to be reborn in modern England, his eye would fix at once on the Gothic cathedral, replacing the graceful fanes of his own land. He would be struck with the sequestration of one day in seven from the vulgar pursuits of gain and of ambition, and the cheerful summons of the Sabbath bell, and the decent throng of all social orders to one spot, not for the amusement of the theatre, or the excitement of the games, but the simpler ends of instruction and of prayer. He would notice the altered character of our anniversaries, nor deny that our rites of Christmas are not less graceful and attractive than the festive days of gayer Athens. But into the system of feelings and ideas of which these outward changes are the fruit, it would be long before he could obtain an insight. That the dim and mystic perspective of the minster is the symbol of a solemn and aspiring devotion, heaving beneath the weighty conceptions of infinitude and eternity; that the Sunday worship is in memory of universal providence and in anticipation of a perpetual life; that the warm greetings of this season are but the recognition of human brotherhood, and its branch of winter green the emblem of life in death, and

*

* This lecture was delivered on the Sunday after Christmas day.